Read to lead
Do you read the publications that your customers, suppliers and outsourcing vendors read? If not, you’re putting yourself at a critical disadvantage and inviting unpleasant surprises.
Category: Personal Development
You’ve made a mistake, now recover
Stressed out, you say something you shouldn’t have. Or you overlook a detail that ends up dooming an entire project. If you’ve said or done something in the past year that jeopardized your career, you’re not alone. Here’s how to recover:
Smart ways to become indispensable
Just doing your job isn’t enough these days. “With the reality of a tight employment market, adding value beyond your job description is a must for everybody,” says Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone. He recently offered a few tips on his blog for being indispensable in your workplace:
In a recession, what’s a perfect job?
Do economic events have you redefining your idea of the “perfect” job? Not so fast. A new Randstad Work Watch survey reveals that 83% of U.S. adults would not change their personal definition of the perfect job once the economy improves. And what are the most important attributes listed by Americans?
4 biz books worth checking out
Heard about the “tipping point” or the “long tail”? If you want to know what ideas shape the minds of your company’s leaders, pick up the following books. And the next time someone talks about a tipping point, you’ll know exactly what she means.
Ask 3 questions to stay focused
To concentrate single-mindedly on a single task, without diversion or distraction, keep asking yourself these questions:
Turning an introvert into a ‘connector’
If the thought of mingling with a crowd of strangers makes you break out in a cold sweat, you’re not alone. But Sacha Chua, an enterprise 2.0 consultant, believes you don’t have to be an extrovert to network well. She even created a presentation geared toward “shy connectors” that’s spreading virally on the web.
5 traits for rising to the top
What does it take to reach the top of your game professionally? Women, at least, can learn much from a new book, How Remarkable Women Lead, by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston. The authors spent five years on research and 100 in-depth interviews with women leaders from around the world. They discovered that women who excel share these five qualities:
The 90-Day Plan: Career Management
As the year draws to a close, think about what you’d like to accomplish in the first 90 days of the new year. What goals will you set, and what specific actions will you put in place to achieve those goals? What’s more, whom will you sit down with every 90 days to review your progress?
Triumph in failure
Think like an inventor by looking for opportunity in failure. British inventor James Dyson says that in trying to develop a fine blade of high-speed air for another product, his team accidentally came up with new hand-dryer technology. “We saw, in that moment of failure, an idea that had huge advantages in another field,” he says.